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Advance polls attract over 10,000 voters for Toronto byelections

OTTAWA—More than 10,000 Toronto citizens won’t have to worry about scrambling to do their democratic duty in between World Pride and Canada Day celebrations in the city in the next week.

They’ve already voted and are among the more than 16,000 Canadians who took advantage of advance polls last weekend for four federal byelections on June 30, in the midst of what is a long holiday weekend for many people.

“(Stephen Harper is) hoping that our community won’t get out to the polls to have its voice heard,” said NDP candidate Joe Cressy while trying to drum up the advance vote in Trinity-Spadina. (Randy Risling / Toronto Star file photo)

Elections Canada released the turnout numbers for the advance polls on Tuesday, showing that 7,172 people voted in Trinity-Spadina and 3,822 people voted in Scarborough-Agincourt over the three days of polling last Friday, Saturday and Monday.

About 5,700 other voters cast ballots in the Alberta ridings of Macleod and Fort McMurray-Athabaska.

In Trinity-Spadina, the advance-voter turnout is close to the number who voted ahead of time during the last general election in 2011, when voter participation rates are usually much higher than in byelections. It’s about 2,000 more than the number of advance voters in last fall’s byelection in Toronto Centre, too.

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It may be a sign of interest in the high-profile campaign to fill the seat vacated by former NDP MP Olivia Chow when she decided to seek the mayor’s job in Toronto.

But equally likely, the healthy turnout at the advance polls is also believed to be a result of concerted efforts by political parties to deal with the awkward timing of the byelections, which are taking place in the immediate shadow of the Ontario provincial election on June 12.

“Stephen Harper doesn’t want you to vote” has been a constant refrain for the Liberal campaign in Trinity-Spadina, where former councillor Adam Vaughan is the candidate.

The same has been true for the NDP campaign, where candidate Joe Cressy has also been accusing the prime minister of timing the vote to ensure a minimum of participation. “He’s hoping that our community won’t get out to the polls to have its voice heard,” Cressy said while trying to drum up the advance vote.

Green Party candidate Camille Labchuk, in a bid to get voters out to advance polls, also cited Harper’s choice of timing.

As one of the opposition party workers in Trinity-Spadina said on Tuesday: “Three parties used Stephen Harper to motivate voters to the advance polls in this riding, and it’s looking like it worked.”

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Conservative officials did not reply to inquiries about what they had done to encourage advance voting last weekend. Nor has Conservative candidate Ben Sharma been participating in this week’s all-candidate debates in the riding.

On Friday, Saturday and Monday, Liberal campaign officials in the two Toronto ridings ceased all canvassing efforts and concentrated entirely on getting out the vote to the advance polls — treating the days as full-fledged election days.

School buses were laid on in Trinity-Spadina to ferry seniors to polling locations, while Scarborough-Agincourt Liberals organized car pools for voters who needed rides.

Lineups were reported at many advance polling locations in the two ridings as well.

In addition to advance polls, people have also been able to cast votes in these byelections simply by showing up at the riding returning office and casting a special ballot.

These special ballots were not among those counted as advance votes by Elections Canada in its release of numbers on Tuesday, but campaign officials report that in Trinity-Spadina, as many as 1,300 people have voted this way.

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